Former Emeryville Politician Now Working for the Private Sector; Bauters Will Serve Billionaires' Interests, Helping Bend Public Policy to Their Liking
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Long Time Local Politician John Bauters
He's made the move to the private sector for
an undisclosed salary. |
Breaking News
Former long time Emeryville City Council member John Bauters has accepted a job managing a crypto billionaire backed political action committee that seeks to recall insufficiently conservative politicians and pull down local regulation in order to assist real estate developers and corporate landlords. ‘Revitalize the East Bay’ PAC recently hired the former councilman as their executive director despite Bauters’ loss in his November election for district five Alameda County Supervisor, a race the shadowy group spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on but failed to win.
Revitalize East Bay, flush with dark money from tech billionaires and Real Estate Investment Trusts, is seeking to “professionalize” their conservative agenda in anticipation of the 2026 elections and the Bauters hire indicates a high level of confidence in the former council member’s political acumen.
What Happened To Bauters?
Many in Emeryville and the surrounding community have wondered what happened to John Bauters who went quiet after his ignominious loss in the election he was believed to have a lock on, especially among his most conservative backers. Mr Bauters had the backing of the corporate sector who went all in with him, including Revitalize the East Bay. His Emeryville Council colleagues (save the lone progressive Council member Priforce) as well as several former anti-labor Council members also backed the seemingly unstoppable Bauters campaign, leaving some surprised and puzzled, especially at the post election silence.
During the Supervisor campaign, Mr Bauters ran as a loud and proud ‘progressive’, keeping his conservative, pro-developer views largely hidden from the electorate. It was a strategy Revitalize East Bay saw as a potentially effective path to power for the secretive right wing PAC in the famously left wing northern Alameda County. Mr Bauters probably was hoping his talk of his progressive values could win the day in the November election but he lost his race to his labor backed opponent, Nikki Fortunato Bas, who revealed Bauters' anti-labor record in Emeryville to Alameda County voters, quoting Tattler stories in a controversial mailer and website.
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Hedge Fund Manager
Capitalist Philip Dreyfuss
One of the primary backers of
Revitalize East Bay and John Bauters. |
Revitalize East Bay has faced criticism for not properly disclosing its donors, raising concerns about the potential influence of hidden money on local elections. The group has not shied away from using subterfuge in their efforts; creating a new committee with a similar name, which allowed them to delay disclosing their donors.
Donors include Philip Dreyfuss: a Piedmont-based hedge fund executive, who contributed significantly as well as YIMBY California backed real estate developers and corporate landlords as well as the energy utility giant PG&E that’s headquartered in Oakland.
Leading up to the November election, Bauters received more than $1.29 million from tech venture capitalists, real estate billionaires including Mr Dreyfuss as well as other corporate special interest groups according to the Phoenix Project, a local collective of citizen activists who shine a light on dark money flooding Bay Area elections forwarding conservative interests. The Phoenix Project produced its near legendary and viral '
Astroturf Network Map' that chronicled the 2024 effect of dark special interest money in the East Bay election. The influential map shone a light where the dark money was and did not spare the Bauters campaign.
Three time mayor Mr Bauters was an extremely influential Emeryville Council member during his years in power here having served as the chair of the powerful Budget and Governance Committee for all eight years, during which time
he quietly shepherded a $11.8 million budget deficit, the worst in the little city’s history. Mr Bauters audaciously blamed the Planning Commission for the red ink, a fact that likely impressed Revitalized East Bay and factored in as they moved the former City Council member into his new pricey digs as executive director for a PAC with budget of millions of hedge fund dollars and an appreciation of subterfuge looking after private interests operating in the public realm.
We reached out to John Bauters for this story but he did not respond.
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| The Phoenix Project's Astroturf Network Map famously laid Revitalize East Bay bare. |
This is a classic move for a failed politician. I would have expected nothing less from John Bauters.
ReplyDeleteBauters don't get nothin done, but he sure talks a lot. A born mouthpiece. I was definitely disappointed in the result of his reign in Emeryville. Maybe his experience will help him get back on track.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Another pol on the grift track.
ReplyDeleteHe and the sellouts who now run Berkeley probably know each other ..
ReplyDeleteSo this is where Bauters landed - on the payroll of a crypto-billionaire-funded dark money PAC hellbent on dismantling local protections and selling out our communities to the highest bidder. The mask is off. After years of pretending to be a progressive while privately working to gut tenant protections and grease the wheels for developers, he's now cashing in - literally - on the very forces he claimed to stand against.
ReplyDeleteThis is far from a redemption arc. It’s a rebrand for a failed politician whose record speaks volumes - $11.8 million in deficit under his watch, a city silenced under backroom deals, and neighborhoods poisoned by the lead dust fallout of his developer buddies. Some of us are still living with that dust in our homes. Some of us were evicted because of it. And when we cried out for help, only one elected official showed up. Not Bauters. Not his followers. Just one voice brave enough to break ranks and stand with us.
This hire by Revitalize East Bay isn’t just cynical - it’s strategic. They know Bauters knows how to manipulate progressive language to serve conservative outcomes. But we’re wise to the game now. Voters already rejected his bait-and-switch politics at the ballot box. And no amount of hedge fund millions will change the fact that his brand of “leadership” left Emeryville poorer, sicker, and more vulnerable.
To those who’ve been forced out of their homes, poisoned by negligence, and ignored by the people who were supposed to protect them - you are not invisible. This fight is far from over, and the people are watching.
As usual, the problem is less the crime than the cover up. Bauters shouldn't run as somebody he's not. It's inauthentic and it's bad when you get caught.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad we elected the authentic progressie Nikki Bas and shame on former supervisor Keith Carson for endorsing this
ReplyDeletecharlatan. But we do need to take seriously the cypto billionaires and expose them wherever they are trying to meddle. Follow the money.
You can't stop doing stories on Bauters. He is no longer a boogie man. He was defeated. Why can't your lack of editorializing recognize that? Never mind he was the best council member Emeryville ever had.
ReplyDeleteIf he’s no longer the boogeyman, why are his defenders like you still hiding under the bed every time his record gets mentioned? You can’t claim he’s irrelevant and the best council member ever in the same breath. That’s like saying the fire’s out while you’re still fanning the smoke.
ReplyDeleteA great leader doesn’t begin and end with their term or in Bauters’ case, with the election he lost. Real leadership is what you do when no one’s watching. But instead of serving the public, Bauters is cashing in working for the same dark money PAC that bankrolled his campaign. That’s not public service. That’s a lobbyist internship.
The kicker? That PAC is backed by crypto billionaires - yes, the same industry whose mining operations are notorious for massive carbon emissions, water waste, and grid stress. Studies show Bitcoin mining alone consumes more electricity annually than many entire countries, and it’s contributed to spikes in emissions across the U.S. [See: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, White House OSTP 2022 report].
Bauters didn’t fall from grace. He walked straight into the arms of the same extractive interests he once claimed to regulate. Like a “climate champion” retiring into a cushy job at ExxonMobil. When people show us who they are, believe them. Charlatan indeed.
Thanks for the great work, Brian!
ReplyDelete